'Green' tracks killing spin bowling: Harbhajan

PUNE: Harbhajan Singh feels that the seamer-friendly pitches in domestic cricket are turning out to be detrimental to slow bowling skills, India's traditional strength.
"A lot of Indian batsmen play spin well... but the wickets are not helping the spinners anymore," the Turbanator, who will turn out for Punjab in the Group B match against Maharashtra starting here on Sunday, said on Friday."They leave a lot of grass to make sure the pitch remains good and fast bowlers get some help. But once the grass goes, they turn out to be flat pitches with no help for the spinners at all."
After two rounds of league matches in the Ranji Trophy, seamers dominate the bowling chart with no spinner featuring in the top-10 wicket-takers list. "We have to understand our soil conditions and need to prepare challenging wickets. There must be something for the fast bowlers on Day One, then the batsmen, and the spinners must come into play on the fourth day We must make sure the skill is not killed with one-sided matches."
The 34-year-old bemoaned the declining interest among the public for first-class cricket. "It's a sad story. Not a single guy comes to watch a Ranji match," he said. "I have played county cricket and a lot of people come to support their home teams.The BCCI has all the tools. It has to plan to bring in people for the four-day games and definitely for the domestic one-dayers and T20 matches."